Britons will be able to pick up one more product when they shop at Marks & Spencer stores next year: home loans.
M&S Bank, owned by HSBC Holdings Plc and run as a joint venture with the food and apparel retailer, will begin offering mortgages in early 2018, it said in a statement Friday. It joins other banks linked to retailers, including Tesco and Sainsbury's, in the home-lending business.
Convenience
The venture may be betting that consumers will opt for the convenience of adding a home loan from a familiar retailer, even as M&S struggles to turn around its apparel operations.
M&S Bank plans to focus on first-time home buyers, who sometimes struggle to secure mortgages given lofty UK valuations, as well as people who move from one house to another, it said.
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